Destiny Unplanned
by MidnightMoon2005
Summary: When the survivors are rescued...will they ever be the same?
1. Prologue

The morning sun filtered through the window as a low string of jazz notes flooded the room. He turned slightly to look at the latest model-slash-bartender he'd picked up at the bar the night before. His alarm was going off so he knew that meant one thing…he had to get this girl out of his bed and now. Sawyer had been off the dreaded island for about 18 months, but hadn't really been himself ever since.

"Hey…" the woman said in a low tone.

"Get your things, I got to get to work," he gazed at her face for a brief moment and turned away, noticing the similarity immediately. _Kate_, the name crossed his mind for an instant.

"Aren't you going to offer me some coffee?" she asked, her voice growing more firm after every minute.

"No time, sweetheart," he remarked, feeling more like himself than ever, like he did months before he'd even left for Sydney, "the boss will kick me out if I turn up late again."

"Yea, yea, ok…" she said, exasperated. If Sawyer knew one thing, it was how to read and treat a woman. He could draw the companionship he needed and still keep them a distance away from himself. The one woman that attempted to tame him hadn't even been someone he would've picked from a crowd to begin with. Now she was all he could see. Lord knew he didn't have a real job, not that he talked to him much anyway. He just needed a plausible excuse to get the numerous one night stands from his apartment. He knew very well he couldn't stay this way forever, but who wants the future when your best days are in the past?

Later that night, after tossing his keys on the table near the door, Sawyer headed towards another bottle. Finally there'd been an opening from the agency, again, he knew he wasn't good for much, but took a job as a temp for one of those annoying telemarketing services. Tomorrow morning he'd be selling staplers to big agencies that didn't even notice if $1,000 went missing from their company business.


	2. One: Reflection of Time

One: Reflection of Time

Sawyer opened his eyes and looked around, immediately realizing he wasn't in his own room. As the vision became clearer he realized he was in the hatch again, and Kate was by his side. She rose as soon as she realized he'd woken up and sat next to him.

"How are you feeling?" she asked, her voice soft, caring.

He tried to answer but couldn't. He looked up at her, eyes narrowed, unable to explain why he couldn't find his voice. Soon, the scene around him started to fade and the familiar music began echoing in his ears signaling the start of another day. Startled, Sawyer immediately sat up and ran a hand through his hair, mentally noting to cut it to rid himself further of memories.

That morning was one of the slowest, most tedious of his life. He never knew telemarketing could be such a pain. Half the day had passed and he wanted to shoot himself already. He wondered how long any one individual could stay at a job like this, before it was either time to move up in the world or end their existence. Regardless of how close to losing his sanity he felt he'd come on a daily basis, it was a real start to a real life. No more taking people's money or playing them with his own, no more long cons…cons of any kind. The people he called were interesting, huge CEOs from across the nation, and all, as he expected, perfectly happy with their stapler situation. Sometimes their receptionist answered, often a sweet sounding female counter part to the cut throat man running the whole show behind the mahogany desk.

Gradually, he slipped into a routine of "pretending to like the job." Every night he'd go for a drink with the twenty something's, every night the same place, the same people. Against all the stereotypes and clichéd sayings – Sawyer actually preferred to drink alone; but as much as he resisted, his coworkers successfully dragged him out nightly for at least one drink. He'd always started out slow; with something light, a beer maybe…he always made himself something more serious when at home.

Days turned to weeks which soon turned to months, while he _was_ getting paid, it wasn't much and he sure didn't like the idea of being stuck there forever. Though one day things changed, he called a woman at a company half way across the country one day, who sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it. The name definitely wasn't familiar, Jorja O'Neil, but the voice, something about it, the sharp attitude, he recognized. As usual, the voice on the other end ended the conversation abruptly, and he was growing used to the feeling of being hung up on. This, however, was different, the voice and the words she'd said still hung in his memory, and though it was against company policy to call back in those circumstances, he wanted to.

He couldn't though, so he did the next best thing. He addressed a catalogue to the office somewhere in Nebraska, a town he'd never heard of. Smiling slightly to himself he thought it might have about 150 people. Days wore on, and all he could hear was the woman's voice, the mere thought that it could be Kate on the other end of that phone brought happiness burning into his stomach, but he shoved that thought out of his mind as quickly as it had arrived. He wondered if it were her, would she recognize his handwriting or name on the note with the catalogue. Or would she ignore it just as he had been trying to do for at least a week after they'd talked. Who knew, but still, he couldn't get her out of his mind.

* * *

Kate sat in her small apartment, basically the middle of nowhere. While she'd been rescued, even though she'd been missing for so long, she realized if she continued to use her own name in the US again…she'd most likely get caught again. Two days after she'd arrived in a small town in the middle of Nebraska, she dyed her hair and made the appropriate actions to start a new life, again. The next day, she went to a local agency to find a job, when that didn't work, she headed to the next town over. It was slightly bigger, but not by much, but at least there were certain tall buildings; especially one that looked slightly promising. Given it wasn't a skyscraper of Los Angeles or New York, it was something for Nebraska, the biggest chain of accountants in Nebraska, even if it was just state wide; regardless it didn't matter. She needed something to keep her going, no matter how long it would be. 

"How can I help you?" the woman at the desk asked, a graceful accent lacing her words.

"Ummm…I need a job?" Kate asked, unsure if this was the place she should've come.

"Sure…" she said her voice trailing off a bit as she began typing on the computer in front of her, "Something simple, like a temp maybe?"

Kate felt herself instantly relax at the mention of such a job, that's exactly the type of work she'd need, "Definitely, that sounds great."

"Great…and it looks like there's an opening on the third floor, with a Mr. Lawson," she responded, "I'll tell him you're on your way up…Ms..?"

"O'Neil…" Kate cut in, "Jorja."

"Beautiful name, Miss O'Neil, I'll let him know, elevators are just 'round the corner." The receptionist took a long look at Kate watching her turn carefully to find the elevators. Kate got an uneasy feeling in the bottom of her stomach; she didn't know how long she could pull this off. She was in a town where no one knew her, but…there was always the "what if" factor in her mind. She'd changed her hair color, but does that really do much? Pushing those thoughts out of her mind, she stepped out of the elevator to find the office that hopefully would change her life forever.


	3. Two: Serendipity

Two: Serendipity

Days soon were months and there was still no response from the small firm in Nebraska, not that he was counting the days. He continued calling random people from between Massapequa in New York, all the way to Colville in Washington. He'd been in this dead end job for almost 2 years and it was a place he'd intended on spending maybe 6 months at most. As time passed it was getting harder and harder to not slam the phone down or lose it with the clients on the other end of the line. Though, they normally took care of that risk no matter what.

"Hey, James…" Jeff called, coming towards his cubicle.

"What do you want now?" Sawyer asked, exasperated, not wanting to deal with him right now.

"We've got a letter…did you send out a catalogue?" Jeff asked.

"Maybe…what's it to you?" Sawyer said, bored, "Go on and open it."

"It says it's from a woman named Jorja," Jeff began. That name triggered a memory; one that he'd hoped would come true.

"Come again?" Sawyer asked, grabbing the letter. Inside, his heart soared, and he smiled faintly for a second, and before he allowed any what ifs, happy or not, he read.

_Dear Mr. Ford – _

_I appreciate your persistence, but when I hung up on you the other day, it wasn't out of rudeness; we really just didn't have a need for staples or staplers. However, I will keep your catalogue on file; regardless as the need may arise in the near future._

That was it. That was her. He could literally sense her smile in the short note. _"Freckles,"_ he almost said it out loud, but before he could he remembered his company. He looked over to Jeff and noticed he looked anxious.

"Well..? What'd it say?" He asked resting his elbow on the cubicle wall.

"Nothing, just that she's keeping the catalogue on file 'til they need the product," Sawyer explained.

"Don't you guys get letters back?" Sawyer asked, wondering why this guy was so into his job.

"No!" he exclaimed with enthusiasm that seemed to surprise himself, "I mean, we send catalogues sometimes, but I don't think we've gotten more than two letters in return…and definitely not _personal_ ones."

"Well, I guess I'm just more charming that you are, short stack," a grin forming at the corner of his lips, "even in writing."

He watched Jeff as he started to fidget slightly, obviously uncomfortable. He'd never seen so many contradictory features on a person before. If he'd grown about 6 more inches, he could've easily had been a basketball player. If he were more confident possibly be married, if of course, he wasn't already. Sawyer turned away, trying to wipe the small grin off his face, he was probably a swimmer in the past, but judging by the looks of him now – hadn't in a long while. Sawyer felt happier and more like himself than he had in months; something exciting finally had happened, and maybe, he wouldn't be stuck in this life forever.

* * *

Kate sat at her desk, lazily typing in numbers in the cells they were supposed to appear in the computer program. She'd just learned the program fifteen minutes ago and it was boring her already. What was nice is there were limited interruptions, hardly anyone called. A few weeks after she started, the phone rang again. This time it was the main receptionist downstairs.

"Mr. Lawson's office, how can I help you?" Kate said.

"Yes, Ms. O'Neil," Marci, the receptionist, began, "I'm aware we've got an arrangement of pay set up, but now you've been with us for almost two months, we're going to need more official papers."

Kate held her breath, "What kinds of papers?"

"Oh, we just need to set up your payroll, so you're officially an employee."

Kate swallowed hard, thinking it wasn't so bad, "OK, I'll get them to you as soon as possible. Can you still get me my pay checks like we've been doing?"

"Yes, as a matter of fact, that won't change much actually, just we need a record of employees and their status, so as soon as you can get us a social security card, birth certificate or passport or something, the better," Marci said.

Immediately Kate knew who she had to call. She hadn't spoken to him in months, and she was sure he'd know about the plane crash. Whether or not he'd figured out she was on it or not, she had no idea, but he was the one she had to call. His name was Anthony, and she sat, amazed his name hadn't crossed her mind in so long. She reminisced briefly; thinking of the time they'd spent was the best she could remember. She thought of him then, his amazing blue eyes, and immediately reminded herself of his caring nature and that he wouldn't care about her past, to some extent, just be glad she was ok. She had to call; it was just a matter of when. Then she remembered the crumple piece of paper in her small box of belongings from the island, she hadn't looked at it in months, but the idea that it could be his number made sense. Things had taken an interesting turn, and now she didn't know what to make of her life. She was starting to move on, and she already had to dig up her past.

Later, after closing down the office building, as usual, Kate headed to her small apartment. Hanging her keys on the hook right by the door, she opened the forth drawer in the stand below, a safety box. After all she'd been through – even though she was the only one who'd ever set foot in this apartment, she didn't trust anyone, sometimes not even herself. Slowly she opened the box, spotting her toy plane a few other important, a few other priceless tokens from her life, including a small envelope with her name on the front. Her heart raced, she'd kept it. Opening the tiny envelope, she smiled at his words written on the small card in side.

_Katie – _

_I'm going to miss you when I move away. Don't hesitate to call me whenever you're in trouble359-0648, I'll be there to rescue you._

_Love you princess,_

_Tony_

She reminded herself it wasn't a time for reminiscing, that she needed his help. She held her breath as she dialed, wondering what would happen next. Relief flooded her veins as soon as she heard his voicemail pick up. She opened her mouth to speak, her nerves putting the sound on a momentary delay.

"Tony, hi, I haven't called you in ages, and I'm sorry for that, but the truth is –" she began, but was interrupted.

"Kate?" he asked, "is that really you?"

Kate couldn't say anything; she'd hoped that this wouldn't happen. She hadn't planned on talking to him directly, not yet at least. She knew she couldn't hang up on him so she opened her mouth again, and her voice refused to cooperate yet again.

"Yes…" was all she could manage.


End file.
